Marie Sorry I had a typo on email. I sent you a correct email address. I agree with urun2me. my sweet spot is 2/1 on very long runs. 3/1 on not so hot and humid days. my speed is almost the same running constant or with walk breaks. amazing !!! I have my last long 26 mile run scheduled on Saturday. I plan on running a constant 11:45 training run (weather permitting) starting out 60/30 for 3 miles then 2/1 thru mile 23. If I feel good will switch to 3/1.

Dan What a great long run. you have really kicked up your training a notch. especially keeping your HR in check.

MKay . hope you are Ok. REMEMBER what I suggested "slow and easy" until your body adjust again. your pushing yourself to hard after all you been through. I hope you give your body a chance to recover this time. you'll be glad you did. did you check ou Hammers Recoverite?

Steve hoping collier temps come your way by the weekend.

can't believe we have Phillies fans in the group. I'm a Phillies / Eagles fan transplant.

Ron,I guess in my excitement about my own race I forgot to congratulate you too. I'm a bit younger then you and those 5K times, well they're a goal for me. My mother was from Ohio (Toledo) and apparently I've got lots of relatives in Ohio and Michigan that I've no memories of.

Marie, is there a term for when a guy out sprints you at the finish? Guidoed? Barefoot drills? How did it feel? Waiting for your 10K report.

MKay,having pulled a hamstring (both sides - but mostly right) many times, be careful and do the exercises to strengthen it. They used to encourage you to stretch. I could always touch my palms to the floor (well, not anymore), but that never worked. There was a study (sorry lost location to the eons of time) once that said people with limber/loose hamstrings were more likely to pull them. Stopped stretch after that, haven't had a problem since - but, could be that I'm sprinting less too...

Urun2me,we all have good days and bad days. Focus on the good ones.

Tony,sounds like you're more then ready for your marathon. Once, you've got it under your belt you can try a more challenging one like SF - there are hills here

Dan, sounds like a good training run. I know when I'm training I'm always looking at the watch. Actually when racing I'm trying to make sure I'm not paying attention to the watch.

Was feeling pretty good about my training until my last run. Left achilles felt tight, could feel it for most of my run on Thursday. Lower calf was a bit sensitive and iced things. Yesterday was scheduled rest day and had been considering doing a slower short run since I took Sunday off (day before race). Walked 5 miles instead and then iced the leg a couple of times after. Feels a whole lot better now, so I'll probably do a slow jog to see how it feels and then ice some more.

Thanks for all of your positive vibes and well wishes for my race! I woke Saturday morning to wind and pouring rain, but by race time the rain had moved on. Clouds hung around so the air was thick, but temps were moderate. The course was flat by East Tennessee standards and I felt good. The stars were aligning, so maybe it was going to be a great day for a race. I had a dream of perhaps breaking one hour, but knew that number one goal was to avoid injury while having fun. My daughter and I started toward the back of the pack as we wrongly assumed the race was chip timed from the start, not a gun time! Oh well. We started w/ a comfortable stride and got into a nice rhythn pretty quickly. We felt really good til around mile 4 where the big long hill loomed. I was getting tired and her asthma had kicked in, but neither of us let on to the other. I had told her from the beginning to go on any time she felt like it, but we ran together stride for stride. We ran continuously, except to walk through the water stops. I haven't mastered running and drinking and I knew hydration was important to stave off the headaches that have been bothering me after long or hard runs.

At the 6 mi mark I told Le to go for it if she still had some kick left. She did, and while I tried to keep up, I couldn;t. She "chicked" a guy right at the finish and he cheered her on. I was coming up on one, but needed a few more feet! So I guess I wasn't "guidoded". LOL. She finished official time in 1:01:02 and I crossed at 1:01:11. Mine good enough for 2nd in age group and 475 out of 650 overall. I was happy. Even if the race had been chip timed, we would have missed the hour by about a half a minute. Oh well, still have a goal to reach. This was a new pr for me by a few seconds. ....maybe if we had walked faster through the water stops..... second guessing! Quit it!!!!

I got a nice little marble (fake I'm sure) paper weight trophy for ag award. Le won a door prize of 2 pr of Asics sock and a cpl of $5 gift card! The Eastman Road Race is a big event celebrating 35 yrs. In addition to the 10K, they do a 3K Race and a 3K Walk. Plus kids event on Friday. For a $10...yes only $10..... runners get a technical t shirt (ok, so it was ugly this year), a pair of wicking socks, a free pasta dinner on Friday evening, a nice little expo, and refreshments after the race. They also had some really nice door prizes, too bad we didn't get one of those! A pair of round trip airfares on Delta to anywhere they fly would have been nice!

Marie, you and Urun made me a Galloway convert way back in spring after one of my earlier injuries. I'm so conservative, I'm running 1:1s but was thinking that solving the medical problems might have given me an opportunity to run faster and just pushed too hard w my speed work. Barefoot runs? I love it!! Gutsy you for sticking it out in that crowd. I know the feeling bc I am the slowest and usually the oldest and that gets me a lot more attention than I like. Seems you've learned to appreciate it.

Great job on your 10k!! That was an awesome, awesome time! Congratulations on winning your AG, also!!

Urun, great to hear you're back on training track! A November 2012 race is good planning. Keep us posted?

Dan, that's some long weekend you have planned and your race is next week? I had the same intervals planned for the Cleveland HM and stuck to the plan for a while. It sounds really good to me.

Tony, it's a sad day in Phantasia these days. Saw the Phils play the Reds last week here ($47 for tenth row home plate seats). Only names I recognized on the roster were Rollins, Howard, Utley, and the pitchers; Ruiz was on the DL. It's a shell of the team it used to be. I suppose I should root for the Reds but they really only hit; their fielding is really spotty and they aren't real likable as players go. Thanks for the advice. I am not a patient person but I don't want to kill any chance I have of racing in October and November so I'm trying to balance. It's a struggle. I like to go big or go somewhere else.

Ray, Good luck with your race!! Hope it's trouble-free and exhilerating! Hamstrings: "could be that I'm sprinting less too..." That's what I'll be saying.

PT said I could walk all I wanted as long as it didn't hurt so yesterday hiked 10 mi w a group. Six hours but I was going to get time on my feet so it was a win! Lots of stops to see where we were. Left leg felt like a prosthetic, like it was alien to my body, but today it doesn't feel any worse. Saw deer, daddy long legs and a box turtle. Used my new Nathan hydration vest and love it! So comfy! But I haven't run in it yet to see if it bounces. Resting today and will try the gym tomorrow. Hopefully will be back pounding the pavement Thursday so I can get a better idea by the end of this week whether I can make the trail race within 4 hrs or not.

Marie, so happy to hear about your 10K! Great time and a great experience.

Ray, thanks for the reminder about good days and bad days. It's just that the good days were in hiding for a few months! Now they're back and I'm determine to keep them around. When I feel a negative thought bubbling up, I push it back and replace it with a positive thought. It worked great on my 13 mile run yesterday.

Mary Kay, you're a trooper! Great job overcoming obstacles and keeping the body in motion.

Have a great week running everyone! It's finally cooling off in south Texas and the humidity has abated. The joy in the run has returned!

Congratulations to all of you on your great race times over the weekend.

We had cooler temps, so I did nine miles Saturday morning at around a 10:00 pace. Weather was ideal for me, around 50 with only a light breeze. Warmer today, so I slowed down for my six-miler. I'll probably do four on Wednesday, then nothing until my Sunday HM.

OK, I'll try to post a picture of our granddaughter.

Wow, it actually worked this time. This was last Wednesday, she was then 10 days old.

--Steve

Completed in 2012:

The Qualifier HM, Midland MI, May 2012, 2:58, 80+ degrees

Dam to Dam 20K, Des Moines, IA, June 2012, 2:17, PR for this race

Garry Bjorklund HM, Duluth, MN, June 2012, 2:20

Fox Valley HM, St. Charles, IL, 9/16/12, 2:23

Des Moines HM, 10/21/12, 2:19

Tentative plans for 2013:

Wisconsin (Half) Marathon, Kenosha, WI 5/4/2013 (registered)

Dam To Dam 20K, Des Moines, 6/2/2013 (registration opens March 20th)

Grandma's (Half) Marathon, Duluth, MN, 6/22/2013 (if I get picked again in the lottery)

Well, somehow I got kicked off this list and have not been getting any notifications in a while. Every now and then I would think about checking into it, wondering if for some reason this list was closed, but I can only find the link here at work, and work has been busy. This is the first chance I've had to get back and now I have lots of catching up to do! I have no idea why the notifications and messages just suddenly stopped - they didn't even show up in my spam.

ANYWAY, with that said, I am on track for the Chicago Marathon on 10/7! This will be h*ll week for me with the highest mileage of the training, 40 miles this week, with 20 miles being the long run this Saturday. Then, the blessed, very welcome TAPER - ahhhhhhhhh ! ! ! ! I have been very lucky to have no injuries, although my left knee has started to bother me at times. I've been using KT tape for my long runs, but have not figured out how to keep it from peeling off after a few miles. I clean the skin before, use zero stretch on the ends, and rub nicely after applying. I purchased some Ace bandage-type straps and will try to loosely wrap those over the KT tape just to keep it from peeling off, and hope for the best, because while in place it really works!!! I've also been foam rolling and icing. The knee is fine while walking, and even sometimes while running, so I'm pretty sure it's just reacting to the MILES.

My fund raising is right on track and I'm just a few $$ away from my goal, so if I have to I will just add it myself and be done with it. I will be SO EXCITED for this once the 20-miler is out of the way! I did 18 miles two weeks ago and it wasn't bad. I've been experimenting with different fuels and have found Chia Surge gu to be the best for me - decent taste and texture with no stomach issues, and best of all, it keeps me going!

OK back to catch up. Hopefully now that I have posted it will jump start the messages getting through again . . . .

Steve: she is a sweetheart! Pretty as her name! I know you just want to eat her up with kisses and hugs.Tks for sharing her pic w/ us.

Sue, for some reason Active has apparently done away w/ the emial notifications. Bummer! I access the site, by going to coolrunning.com go to forums, then to newbie category, and then scroll down to find the 50 thread. Hope that helps. Good to see you back. We've missed you! Sounds like you are ready for your marathon! Good luck. Can't wait to read a race report!

Well, I've done a "little" catching up and, am I reading correctly that some time in October this will become, or be moved to a site that you have to pay for? Bummer!

I'm so glad and somewhat relieved to read about some others using a 2:1 run/walk ratio. I've been training for a while at that pace and was hoping it would be good enough for the marathon. I just feel that's a place and a pace that I can lock into for the long haul. I may not be quick, but all I want to do is finish and live to tell about it, and I don't want to have to make any excuses! I think it will feel weird at the beginning of the race when I start walking after just two minutes, and I will want to shout "there's a method to my madness"!

These shorter Fall days are really cramping my training style! I have to run 10 miles tonight and will really have to rush to get home and going by 5:30 p.m. in order to finish by 7:30 before it starts to get dark. I really don't like to run in the dark for many reasons. Even though I feel pretty safe on my route, if I can't see the sidewalk I hate to take the chance of tripping and tumbling. I've come this far, it would KILL me to be out of commission SO CLOSE!!!

I am new to this post, new to 50 (August), and new to running. I started running my own version of a C25K, after NEVER running, on 8/6/12. I had been walking about 3 miles 4 times per week for the last three years and needed something more. I am now up to 4 miles 3-4 times per week at about 10.27 mi. I am running my first 5K this sunday. I pushed myself the other morning (Tuesday) and did 5 miles and had terrible right ankle and heel pain after the run. Tried to run on it yesterday and couldnt even push out 3 miles without stopping 3 times. I am impatient and think that maybe I have been trying to do too much too soon?? Any advice on how to create a running schedule that is challaning and builds in progress but at the right pace? Thanks!!